Frictional rolling contact between a bowling ball and a lane often leaves wear or scratch on the surface of the bowling ball. In particular, the bowling ball tends to make contact with the lane substantially at the same circumferential area thereof, which gives rise to an unbalanced partial wear of the bowling ball. Use of the scratched or unevenly worn bowling ball would make a bowling player feel it difficult to command, e.g., spin skills at his or her desire due mainly to the unpredictable movement of the bowling ball. Accordingly, the scratch and the unbalanced wear may adversely affect the score of a bowling game, thus reducing the amusement of the game played. This means that the bowling ball should be periodically resurfaced into a complete spherical shape.
There are a number of prior art references that disclose a device for automatically resurfacing the bowling ball. One of them is U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,896 that teaches a bowling ball resurfacing machine including three shafts each pivotally disposed at an angle of 120° in a manner as to support a bowling ball therein, three motors for rotating the corresponding shaft in a forward/reverse direction, and three cone-shaped abrading cups mounted on the shafts. Although this bowling ball resurfacing machine has its own advantages, the problem of unbalanced partial wear still remains unsolved because the rolling direction of the bowling ball cannot be vigorously changed during the resurfacing operation.
Another aspect of them is Korean Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-39093 that discloses a bowling ball resurfacing device for abrading and furbishing a surface of a bowling ball while causing the bowling ball to revolve in various directions. The bowling ball resurfacing device, filed by an applicant of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages, comprises a plurality of cylindrical supporting posts rotatable about respective vertical axes; a plurality of rollers mounted on the top end of each of the supporting posts in such a manner as to make a rolling contact with a lower portion of the bowling ball, each roller rotatable about a corresponding horizontal axis; second driving means for rotating the rollers about the respective horizontal axes; third driving means for rotating the supporting posts about the respective vertical axes; and abrading means for abrading and furbishing the bowling ball, in frictional contact with the surface of the bowling ball. This bowling ball resurfacing device first rotates the bowling ball about the horizontal axis by using the second driving means and the rollers, and angularly moves the rollers about the vertical axis by using the third driving means and the supporting posts, thereby abrading and furbishing the surface of the bowling ball while causing a rotational axis of the bowling ball supported by the rollers to revolve in various directions.
On the other hand, although this bowling ball resurfacing device has an advantage capable of evenly abrading and furbishing the surface of the bowling ball while causing the ball to revolve in various directions, it has also disadvantages that a structural complexity of the device causes its manufacturing difficulty, increases a manufacturing cost, and has many function troubles.
In addition, the prior art bowling ball resurfacing device has a problem that the bowling ball does not deviate in spite of an angular movement of the roller since a frictional force between the bowling ball and the roller is reduced due to a point contact of each other. In particular, an angular movement of a bowling ball having a slight weight is more difficult. These problems make it difficult to control the bowling ball, prevent the rotational axis of the bowling ball from varying in many directions, and make it impossible to uniformly abrade and furbish a surface of the bowling ball.
Further, the prior art bowling ball resurfacing device has a problem that the bowling ball is instantaneously wobbled owing to finger holes recessed in the surface of the bowling ball during the rotation of the ball by means of the rollers to thereby make it difficult to control the bowling ball. Especially, at the moment the roller pass by the finger holes, the bowling ball is sandwiched between the respective rollers, thereby burdening many loads to the second driving means and the power transmitting means. As a result, the service life of the second driving means and the power transmitting means is reduced due to its immoderate operation.